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Something is coming!! - AV
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“Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.”
Podcast Episode
The Rise and Fall of Galleries ft. Larry Gagosian
About
Adriana Varejão
Varejão was born in Rio de Janeiro. She attended the Escola de Artes Visuais do Parque Lage from 1983 to 1985. In 1986 she began to experiment with the medium of oil painting, reimagining in thick impasto the ornate Baroque frescoes and religious relics of the eighteenth-century churches in Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
In her richly diverse oeuvre, Adriana Varejão uses the Baroque tactics of simulation, juxtaposition, and parody to reflect on the mythic pluralism of Brazilian identity and the complex social, cultural, and aesthetic interactions that produced it. Varejão draws upon a potent visual legacy animated by the histories of colonialism and transnational exchange to create a confluence of hybridized forms—paintings that are both architectural and sculptural; theatrical, painted sculptures; mesmerizing multichannel videos—that expose the multivalent nature of memory and representation.
Workshops
Cracked Surfaces: Reimagining History Through Adriana Varejão
In this hands-on workshop, participants explore how Adriana Varejão uses tiles, flesh-like textures, and architectural forms to speak about colonial history, hybridity, and the body. We’ll begin with a short visual presentation on key works (such as Espiral (Spiral)), then move into a guided discussion on themes of fracture, wound, and repair. Participants will then create their own “ruptured surface” pieces using paper, collage, and drawing, experimenting with how breaking a surface can reveal hidden narratives. The session closes with a brief share-out and reflection on how these strategies can inform personal practice, curatorial work, or research.
Total duration: 2 hours
Schedule:
0:00–0:20 — Introduction & presentation on Varejão
0:20–0:45 — Group discussion of themes (body, history, architecture)
0:45–1:30 — Individual making session (collage / drawing)
1:30–2:00 — Sharing, feedback, and reflection
Press
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“Varejão collapses architecture and anatomy into a single skin. Her tiled reliefs behave like living walls — breathing, rupturing, and remembering.”
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“Varejão transforms the brutality of colonial histories into something devastatingly elegant — her surfaces bleed, crack, and shimmer like haute couture textiles woven with memory.”
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“Varejão reimagines the colonial archive through painterly incision. Her surfaces rupture not for shock, but for truth.”
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“Varejão’s paintings perform a kind of slow revelation — each crack an opening into centuries of suppressed stories.”
